The Lives and Writings of Indigenous Nuns in Colonial Mexico

FAIN: HR-50275-06

Monica Diaz
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg, TX 78539-2909)

Material written in convents that I have begun to uncover presents new possibilities for developing a history of indigenous Mexican women and recognizing their contributions to a Mexican literary heritage. These materials reveal the construction of gendered and racial ideologies, and the ways in which indigenous women participated in and challenged this process. The award from the NEH will allow me to find and analyze more writings within the three convents for indigenous women that existed in colonial Mexico, and to reveal the important roles of indigenous nuns in colonial society.